Solo Leveling's Low Blu-ray Sales Reveal Major Anime Industry Change
While sales data for the Solo Leveling Volume 2 Blu-ray and DVD reveal surprisingly low numbers, its indisputable popularity internationally and rapid Season 2 announcement indicate how important industry changes like streaming have become to an anime’s success.
Oricon sales via Nakayasee on X (formerly Twitter) reveal that the Solo Leveling Volume 2 Blu-ray and DVD failed to even rank for its week of release. This guarantees that it must have sold less than the lowest Blu-rays to rank — Mashle Season 2 Volume 2 with 629 copies and Blue Exorcist Season 3 Volume 1 with 164 copies. This may come as a surprise to many viewers, given the anime’s incredible popularity overseas. Despite the increase in action from Volume 1 — a major selling point for fans — Volume 2 joins Solo Leveling’s first Blu-ray in failing to sell well, having registered around 600 units or fewer in its first week.
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Physical Anime Sales Aren’t the Same Indicator of Success as They Once Were
Despite this news, Blu-ray sales are no longer necessarily the decider of an anime series’ success. The AJA Anime Industry Report 2023 recently released 2022’s figures, revealing that Internet distribution has grown almost five-fold (165.2 billion yen/$1.1 billion) over the last 10 years. At the same time, “Video” has dropped to a third of its value (38.5 billion/$252 million). Meanwhile, the income generated from overseas grew to a record-high 1.46 billion yen, or $1.8 billion, with streaming rights a major factor. This will likely continue to grow as anime continues its foray into the worldwide mainstream market.
Solo Leveling’s Streaming Popularity on Crunchyroll Far Exceeds Its Domestic Physical Sales
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Solo Leveling’s international popularity is hard to deny, crashing Crunchyroll on its debut, becoming the sixth-most popular anime on the streaming platform and attracting many new fans and income in the form of subscriptions. While it’s impossible to know the conversion to exact subscriber numbers, readers can get a sense of Crunchyroll’s scope to continue its growth, spiking from 5 million to 13 million from 2021 to 2024. Solo Leveling was also among the world’s most popular TV series of any medium, via IMDb. The series is currently dubbed in 11 languages, including English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Hindi and Korean. Meanwhile, subtitling options add languages Russian and Arabic to the mix, comprising most of the world’s most spoken languages and anime hubs.
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The impact of Blu-ray sales can certainly be overstated, with the misinterpretations of MAPPA CEO Manabu Otsuka’s comments about Chainsaw Man arguably doing irreparable harm to the series: “There are works that sell a lot of packages, and there are also works that can be seen a lot through distribution. To be honest, I wish this work had reached the audience who pay for the package.” Nonetheless, Blu-ray sales can still be a solid source of income; Jujutsu Kaisen recently broke its franchise sales record for sales, with Season 2 Volume 1 earning approximately 200 million yen in its first week. Jujutsu Kaisen’s production figures aren’t public, so given that many industry figures put an individual episode anywhere between 10 to 40 million yen, earning 200 million back in one week clearly goes a long way to entering the green. Ex-MAPPA producer Makoto Kimura also recently reiterated that Chainsaw Man was a financial success.
Solo Leveling will return for Season 2 at an unconfirmed date. Crunchyroll streams the series, describing it: “They say whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but that’s not the case for the world’s weakest hunter Sung Jinwoo. After being brutally slaughtered by monsters in a high-ranking dungeon, Jinwoo came back with the System, a program only he could see, that’s leveling him up in every way. Now, he’s inspired to discover the secrets behind his powers and the dungeon that spawned them.”
Jin-Woo Sung and Other Warriors Pose on the Solo Leveling Promo
Solo Leveling
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In a world of gifted hunters and monsters, a weak hunter Sung Jin-Woo gains extraordinary powers through a mysterious program, leading him to become one of the strongest hunters and conquering even the strongest dungeons.
Release DateJanuary 7, 2024CastTaito Ban, Aleks LeMain GenreActionGenresAction, Adventure, AnimeSeasons1StudioA-1 PicturesCreatorChugongWritersNoboru KimuraStreaming Service(s)Crunchyroll
Source: Nakayasee via X (formerly Twitter)